News

Clauson Finishes 17th in Fastenal Dodge

CGRFS Nationwide Teams Cross the Finish Line 17th and 25th at Nashville

LEBANON, Tenn. (March 22, 2008)-Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (CGRFS) teammates Bryan Clauson and Kyle Krisiloff worked to overcome tight-handling race cars and long green-flag runs in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) Pepsi 300 to bring the No. 40 Fastenal Dodge home in 17th place and the No. 41 Polaroid Dodge in 25th.

Leading up to Saturday’s green flag for the Pepsi 300, Clauson and the No. 40 Fastenal team locked in an 18th-place starting position by lapping the 1.33-mile speedway at 160 mph in 29.988 seconds. Krisiloff and the No. 41 Polaroid team lapped the track at 157 mph in 30.511 seconds to lock in the 31st-place starting position.

The 225-lap race got underway just after 2 p.m. CT. Both CGRFS cars maintained clean and consistent runs the entire day in Lebanon, Tenn. Both battled a tight-handling condition neither seemed quite able to shake. With only three yellow flags waving throughout the entire competition, it provided little time for the teams to truly address the stubborn handling cars. Still, both made multiple adjustments, involving a combination of air pressure and chassis changes to try to improve their cars’ handling.

Clauson saw a slight improvement after each stop, but the No. 40 Dodge continued to tighten up on the long green-flag runs that dominated the 300-mile race. He eventually called it a day in 17th place just two laps off the lead lap. Krisiloff seemed to really gain some ground in the last quarter of his run as his lap times improved greatly in the closing laps, crossing the finish line in 25th four laps off the lead lap. Only eight cars out of the 43-car field finished on the lead lap

The No. 40 CGRFS NNS team now stands 21st in the overall NNS owner points rundown. With a current tally of 632, the team is 93 points outside the top 10 and 261 out of first. The No. 41 CGRFS NNS team is 29th overall with 467 points. The team is 299 away from the 10th spot and 426 out of first.

The CGRFS Nationwide teams will take next weekend off and will then head to Texas Motor Speedway to run the O’Reilly 300 on Saturday, April 5. The NNS race is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. ET and will broadcast live on ESPN2 and PRN Radio.